Vengeance
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: Hyuuga Hinata only ever feared one thing in her life. Loneliness. Betrayed by her clan, forsaken by her team, she is left with but one path of recourse. That path is her own. SasukexHinata! Shippuden! Fluff and potential lemon rating may change.Sasu/Hina


**_A/N: Daaaaaaaw! I just couldn't help myself but to write this! Hinata needs some love, ESCPECIALLY in Shippuden! In all honesty, this was originally meant to be NaruxHina fic, but quite frankly, that's been done to death! Don't get me wrong, I AM a major fan of that pairing, but after being challenged by a friend of mine, I felt that our favorite Hyuuga deserved love, and those bastards on the council deserved VENGEANCE brought down upon their heads!_**

_"But he that dares not grasp the thorn, Should never crave the rose."_

___Anne Bronte_~

**_Sweet Dreams are Made of These_**

Hinata was in agony.

"We have told you not to associate with the demon boy but you continue to defy us as a Hyuuga. We have warned you time and time again over not to go near that boy but you have continued to spite us in spite of that. Since our words have done little to dissuade you, you have left us with little choice. You will be placed in the Branch house as of tomorrow and receive the caged bird seal. Fortunately, we do not have to wait to place the seal on you. We have modified the caged seal allowing us to place it on anyone at a given time." Helpless to do anyting but watch, Hinata lay there, numbed the sedative as her father approached. Helpless to do anything, as he placed a seal on her forehead and channeled chakra into it. The seal glowed brightly for a few seconds before it did the strangest thing; it sputtered and faded away completely.

Then came the pain.

_"Aaah!"_

Hinata clutched her forehead in pain as she dropped to the ground. The seal started glowing again as more pain went through her body. The Hyuga elders waited until the seal stopped glowing to show its success but it didn't. Instead, Hinata continued to roll around in pain. Blood started leaking from her mouth creating small splotches of crimson on the otherwise pristine floor of the Hyuuga compound.

_'Not like this.'_

It felt like someone had poured acid inside her skull. And it hurt. Oh, it hurt so much. Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to breathe, struggled to fight against the excruciating agony consuming the frayed strands of her conciousness; struggled to survive despite the overwhelming blackness blotting out her vision. Was this it then? Was she going to die? Was she going to perish without telling _him_ how she felt? Would she simply fade away, with no one to remember her by? Naruto held no feelings for her. Her team did not care for her. No one cared about her. No one at all.

_'Not like this not like this not like this..._

Hinata clawed at her forehead hoping the pain would stop. It did not. If anything it only grew worse. The elders watched with confusion on their face as to why Hinata was like this but remembered how fragile she was or in her mind she was. Hinata screamed. She screamed against the pain, against her frustration, against her weakness, against any and everything that had ever made her weak and frail in her life. She screamed until her lungs collapsed. The seal had stopped glowing so the Hyuga elders took this as a sign of success. They walked away from her, _from their clan failure_, as the last shards of pain stabbed through her skull and swept her down into the darkness and left her alone._ I don't want to be alone, _she thought to herself._ Ah, I don't. I don't I don't I don't..._

_"I don't want to be alone anymore!"_

**_"Then don't be."_**

Hinata froze, her entire body stiffening as the last remnants of the paralysis left her body; as a wall of visible chakra washed over her. Craning her head to the side, she felt as if she'd been stabbed. Because her father had been stabbed. She watched, gawping, as the Head of the Hyuuga clan pitched forward, his head leaving his shoulders before her very eyes. His lifeless eyes lay wide as he toppled to the floor, his features twisted in a rictus of fury in his last moments.

"Defiler!" One of the Hyuuga Elders screamed, only to scream as they meet a similair fate; as they too were struck down where they stood. Thousands upon thousands of chirping birds roiled through the air, the sounds of combat puncuated by the death rattles of the dead and the screams of the dying. Hinata struggled onto her stomach as the slaughter continued, a strange numbness overtaking her as she saw the one responsible for their demise.

"Murderer!" Another cried as he advanced, brandishing his blade with all the skill and grace of a true shinobi. "You _dare_ walk the halls of our compound-_ARGH!" _Within a twist and a sickening squelch, the Hyuuga lost his life; because the katana had just left him heartless and lifeless.

"I've dared to do a lot of things, recently." A deep-timbre voice rumbled, brandishing the gleaming blade anew. "One more can't possibly hurt."

The murderer in question was a dark-haired young man with the sheathe of Chokatou sheathed at his lower back. Hinata couldn't see his face. He wore a long, white sleeved kimono top, a pair of loose black pants, bearing a dark blue clothe and purple obi wrapped around his waist; both to hold it and his sword's sheathe. Over his forearms were a pair of black gloves, leaving his fingers and palms bare, a pair of sandals covering his feet with black leg warmers over his shins and calves. Most notably, his attire bore a small symbol on the back of his collar, that resembled an-

_Uchiha._

Hinata felt as if she'd been stabbed. She was staring at Uchiha Sasuke. Traitor to the leaf, having defected to Orochimaru three years ago. Shortly thereafter, Naruto-kun had gone on a journey with Jiraiya-sama, and she hadn't seen either of them since. So what was Uchiha Sasuke doing here? He'd left the village. To kill his brother, and to restore his clan, he had forsaken his bonds with the Leaf and cast his lost with Orochimaru.

_"Katon."_ Sasuke breathed, having finished the seals for his jutsu. _"Hosenka no Jutsu."_ Hinata blinked as he spewed forth fire, laying waste to the Hyuuga Compound. Soon her world was boiling with black smoke and the threshing floor was mantled in fire. A blue aura bled from his fingertips into the air, solidifying it in a curved wall between them as the flames began to spread.

_'Pretty..._

The flames were beautiful. The looked like autumn leaves -red and gold, rattling as the wind tore through them, breaking free and whirling into the sky. The compound was flying away. Thatch and wattle rafters all were going up in ash. Hinata watched the compound and the Hyuuga burn. Everything was fire. Still, it was beautiful. She tasted blood on her tongue and in her mouth when she breathed. She was going to die here, amidst these beautiful flames, slain by the one person Naruto-kun cared for more than anyone elese. What a fitting end for such an inept person.

He stared at her for a moment, his mouth a thin a line as he sheathed his sword. Whatever he had come for, he'd doubtlessly found it. She could see her family's scroll in his fist; could smell the soot sinking into her skin even as she realized that she was going to die here. He stalked slowly toward her and pocketed the scroll. The years had been, oh so kind to him, Hinata realized. He was slender and lithe, and yet she could see muscle beneath the loose folds of his open kimono, sizzling against the heat.

Nothing at all like the boy he'd once been. Sasuke, this burning man that he'd become, said nothing to her. Instead, he inhaled sharply. Hinata silently braced herself for that which was to come. Her end was nigh, and she was prepared to meet her maker. Silently, she bemoaned the fact that she was going to be slain, not by her best friend, but by the monster he had become.

Hinata didn't fear the fire. She didn't fear him. She was young and strong_-moreso the former than the latter-_and she didn't fear death. She did not fear this. No, what she did fear, above all else was to be alone. Secretly, she thanked Kami that Neji was out on a mission and Hanabi...well, she hoped that her sister had enough sense to be _away_ from the compound when this happened. If not then...

And then Uchiha Sasuke did the unexpected.

He spoke.

"It's been awhile." He said, to no one in particular. "Hinata."

Despite herself, Hinata smiled.

Preamble before her death? Very well. There could be no harm in indulging herself any further.

"It has...been ever so long, Sasuke." Strangely enough, Hinata was not outraged at the death of her father and the council. Instead, she felt only emptiness. A mind-numbing, all consuming emptiness. She could feel her life slipping between her fingers, and she did not begrudge him that, either. If anything, she was happy to see him. At least she'd be able to look upon his face and die, knowing that there was nothing more to be done for him.

"What brings you here?" she found herself asking.

"I was looking for something." The avenger raised his gaze toward the ceiling as it collapsed around them, raining debris down around their heads.

"Did you find it?" Hinata inquired blearily, wincing as the faintest of shouts resonated from just beyond her vision. "I hope you found it." She watched the black marks scrawl across his flesh and illuminate his form, flushing his skin a deep, ashen grey as his raven locks grew and became a dusky violet. She watched the wings spread from his back and blanket the two of them, swatting the debris away as though they were but bales of hay.

Was it just her imagination, or did the slighest of smiles pull upon his lips as he spoke?

"I _did_ find it, Hinata."

He knelt before her and pressed a wet cloth to her forehead. Abruptly, the pain abated. She could no longer feel the Caged Bird Seal eating away at her retina. She was about to thank him when he locked eyes with her, those orbs of deep, heartless charcoal fixating upon her own, pearly white. Something flickered in them, for the briefest instant. It was...pity? Remorse? She couldn't be sure and before she could it was gone, replaced by an emotion so intense, so overwhelming, that she it left her eyes stinging.

_"Sleep." _he commanded.

The last thing Hinata saw were a pair of red, atom-shaped eyes; a pair of black tomoe spinning furiously within them, before she passed out from exhaustion.

**A/N: Ah, SasukexHinata. I am such a sucker for this pairing. And yet (Until this story) I've yet to ever write a story solely about them! Why is that I wonder? Ah, but I digress. To clarify, this takes place BEFORE Naruto and Jiraiya return to the village, ergo, Sasuke is still training under Orochimaru and this story will outline the whole journey throughout Shippuden. Why did he lay waste to the Hyuuga Compound and steal a scroll? Why did he kidnap Hinata? Though you may think the answers obvious, you will have to wait and see to be certain, but I promise you will not be dissapointed! Oh, and Naruto...YOU'RE GONNA BE PISSED!**

**R&R! =D**


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